Gumbo Ya Ya

We're keeping the Fat Tuesday celebration going!

Gumbo Ya Ya is family-owned and has an amazing selection of food to choose from!

C1 3 speaker 1: thanks for staying with us, guess what?

It is a party all day long and we are continuing our celebration of fat tuesday.

We're now joined by erin mcelroy and bill messner from gumbo ya ya, and they are here to tell us all about their fantastic fat tuesday celebration.

Thank you guys so much for being here.

Erin mcelroy: yeah, no problem, we're happy to be here.

Bill messner: thanks for having us.

Speaker 1: are you ready for this?

Bill messner: i'm ready.

Erin mcelroy: as prepared as we can be, i'd say.

Bill messner: i'm ready.

Speaker 1: well talk about gumbo ya ya.

I mean you do cajun food all the time, so this must be your biggest day of the year?

Bill messner: it is.

Erin mcelroy: it definitely is, it definitely is.

We always have a great time on fat tuesday.

It's always a great celebration at our store.

We always have a bunch of people come in.

We love to celebrate with you guys and we want everyone to come in and have a great time with us.

Adam: well, let's talk about your store, what should people expect when they walk in?

Erin mcelroy: when you come into gumbo ya ya you're always going to expect a friendly smile, a great staff that's there to help you with anything you need, have any questions answered.

You always have people that are always going to welcome you and feel like you're at home there.

So when you come in, we always offer free samples, so if you've never had us, you can always try something.

Adam: oh, wow.

Erin mcelroy: yes, and then we also make all of our bread and all of our desserts homemade in our kitchen as well, so we always have great food prepared, and then we always have a good time and a good smile waiting.

Speaker 1: do you always have these gator and lobster necklaces?

Because i'm loving the beads.

Erin mcelroy: we always have them, yes.

We have them for fat tuesday, we hand them out all day fat tuesday.

We hand out free glasses and free items all day.

And we do the king cake and then we also have all kinds of good selections on food as well.

We also expand our menu for fat tuesday.

Speaker 1: and you're not a franchise, right?

Erin mcelroy: nope, we're not.

Bill messner: we are not a franchise.

We're a locally owned family operation.

The great thing about it, you can come in any time and our owner, greg todd and his wife tressa are going to be there.

On the cash register is tressa's mom and at night you might see their teenage son treg.

So we are a family owned restaurant.

Speaker 1: amazing.

Adam: that is amazing.

So you have a lot of delicious food here that you brought, it smells good.

Erin mcelroy: oh, yes.

Speaker 1: adam's just delving into... this is his first fat tuesday- adam: it is.

Speaker 1: ... so we're just going heads in and trying everything.

What did you bring today?

Erin mcelroy: that's the only way you can go.

Speaker 1: thank you.

Erin mcelroy: so today we've got our traditional jambalaya.

It's a rice dish that we make in house.

It's got chicken and sausage in it.

Speaker 1: is it spicy?

Erin mcelroy: it's not.

It's actually very, very mild.

Speaker 1: we told adam this about another one and it was spicy.

So this one's really mild?

Erin mcelroy: most of these are really mild that we brought today.

Adam: no more dirty tricks, okay.

Good, good, good.

Erin mcelroy: we are not going to kill your stomach, i promise.

Adam: thank you sir, so much.

Bill messner: there you go.

Adam: thank you so much.

Speaker 1: so you're nicer than me.

All right, what else do we have?

Erin mcelroy: so right here we've got, in the back, it is our maque choux.

It's a cheese sauce with crawfish, corn, and red bell peppers cooked into it and it's also got prosciutto ham.

Speaker 1: oh, yummy.

Erin mcelroy: it's a great flavor and you always get super full on it.

It's actually my personal favorite out of all of our selections.

Speaker 1: yum, all right crawfish is that a staple for new orleans?

Erin mcelroy: always, anywhere you go in louisiana, you'll find it.

No matter where you go, you'll find seafood fresh, it is always abundant down there.

Adam: what seems to be the most popular dish that people like to get when they come into your store?

Erin mcelroy: a lot of times if you come in and you've never had cajun food before, a lot of people go for our traditional jambalaya.

And stuff that you've had before in other foods, so you've had chicken and sausage and then you've also had rice and peppers and onions, things like that, that you've had in other things.

And so they just kind of tend to fall towards that one just as a beginning.

But we are where we offer the free samples, you can always try something else if your feeling in brave.

So we've got the alligator sauce piquant, it's got chunks of alligator meat in it.

It's really zesty and fresh with lemon rind in there, it's so good.

And then we have the lobster etouffee, which is a roux base sauce.

It's got chunks of lobster meat in there.

It's really creamy and delicious.

Speaker 1: so, so good.

And then of course you have to have a king cake.

Erin mcelroy: always.

Speaker 1: now adam, you haven't done the king cake celebration yet?

Adam: the name sounds fitting for me though, .

Erin mcelroy: oh it's amazing.

So our king cake it is a dough like pastry that is filled with cream cheese and then it is topped with icing and sugar.

And then we decorate it with the beads and with your coins as well.

Speaker 1: can we talk about the baby?

Erin mcelroy: yes, there is a hidden baby inside.

So traditionally whenever you find the baby, the person who finds it has to either host the next a celebration for mardi gras or they have to buy the next king cake for the next party.

So there is a little bit of tradition with it.

Speaker 1: good luck... don't you get good luck if you get the baby?

Erin mcelroy: yes, it is also a sign of luck and prosperity for the next year and if you do eat in at our store, if you get a slice of king cake and you find the baby, if you're eating in with us, you get a free tee shirt or a free meal voucher if you eat in it with us.

Adam: has anyone ever accidentally ate the baby or is it- erin mcelroy: we've had people tell us that they've accidentally bitten into it and not known it was there and this year we did colored babies so we don't have the little tan ones.

We have colored ones in there so you'll definitely see them this year.

Speaker 1: that's extra good luck, extra good luck.

Erin mcelroy: oh yes.

Speaker 1: you have to do the king cake, it's one of my favorite traditions for fat tuesday.

Where can we find you and what are your hours tomorrow?

Erin mcelroy: we are located in lexington on south broadway, right next to buffalo wild wings.

And then we also have a location in jessamine county, it's in brannon crossing.

Each store is open from 11 to 9:00 pm monday through saturday.

And then on sundays our brannon crossing location is open from 11 to 8:00 pm.

Speaker 1: awesome.

So celebrate today, fat tuesday.

Enjoy it, then come back tomorrow and get some more cajun food.

Erin mcelroy: oh yes, we'll be ready.

Bill messner: we'll be there on wednesday.

Erin mcelroy: we'll be waiting for you.

Speaker 1: all right, well, we appreciate y'all being here.

Adam: thank you.

Speaker 1: thank you so, so much.

Stay with us,